What are the steps in the process of buying a business?

What are the steps in the process of buying a business ?

1. Deal origination and target business identification
2. Meeting the sellers
3. Valuation
4. Indicative offer to purchase presented to the sellers’ advisers
5. Heads of Terms (HOT) or Letter of Intent (LOI)
6. Signed HOT/LOI by both buyer and seller
7. Financial and management information gathering and cashflow modelling exercise
8. Search for a funder
9. Indicative terms from a funder
10. Final Term Sheet / Credit Backed Offer
11. Due diligence
12. Legals – the Sale & Purchase Agreement (SPA) and legal due diligence
13. Transaction completion
14. Celebrate briefly………before the real hard work starts